Keynote Speakers
Axel Hauschild is Head of the Skin Cancer Working Group at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Kiel, Germany. Professor Hauschild’s main clinical interests are the diagnosis and treatment of skin cancer and dermatological surgery, and he has been the principal investigator of more than 100 Phase 1-3 trials including studies on melanoma, cutaneous lymphomas and epithelial skin cancers. The recipient of the German Skin Cancer Award and the German Cancer Award, Professor Hauschild is the past President of the German Dermatologic Cooperative Oncology Group, Co-chair of the Global Melanoma Task Force, and a board member of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology. He was Congress President of the 8th World Congress on Melanoma in 2013 and has been an invited speaker at over 700 national and international congresses. Professor Hauschild has published over 300 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Plenary 3 – Staging, surgery and targeted therapies for melanoma
Friday 20 October 2017, 9:10 AM – 10:40 AM
Keynote Address: Targeted therapies and combination approaches in metastatic melanoma
Dr. Boris Bastian received his MD degree and Dr. med degree from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich. After completing a residency in dermatology at the University of Wurzburg, he received additional training in dermatopathology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco before joining the institution’s faculty and starting his research laboratory at UCSF’s Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 2010 he moved to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to become Chairman of the Department of Pathology. He served as the President of the Society of Melanoma Research from 2010 to 2013. In 2011 he returned to UCSF and holds the title of Gerson and Barbara Bakar Distinguished Professor of Cancer Biology. He currently is the Executive Director of the Clinical Cancer Genomics Laboratory, which performs molecular diagnostics for patients of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. He has clinical responsibilities in the Dermatopathology Section of the Departments of Dermatology and Pathology, where he also directs the molecular diagnostic laboratory of the Dermatopathology Section.
Dr. Bastian’s research laboratory focuses on the molecular genetics of cutaneous neoplasms, with a particular emphasis on the discovery of genetic alterations useful for diagnosis, classification, and therapy. His laboratory has contributed to the discovery of several genetic alterations in melanocytic neoplasia that are relevant for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes and for the establishment of a taxonomy of melanocytic neoplasia that integrates molecular and clinical aspects.
Plenary 5 – Future Perspectives and Congress Highlights
Saturday 21 October 2017, 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Keynote Address: Unsolved questions in melanoma genesis
Adèle Green is a Senior Scientist at the QIMR Berghofer Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane and Senior Research Scientist at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute in UK. She trained in medicine and her research career has focused on the causes, treatment and prevention of various cancers, especially keratinocyte carcinoma and melanoma. She is Fellow of the Academy of Health & Medical Sciences, member of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, member of the Scientific Council of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, Chair of Cancer Australia’s Research and Data Advisory Group and member of the Australian Radiation Health and Safety Advisory Council.
Plenary 1 – Melanoma epidemiology and early diagnosis
“Neville Davis and Gerald Milton Lecture”
Wednesday 18 October 2017, 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Keynote Address: The changing epidemiology of cutaneous melanoma: 1967-2017
Antoni Ribas, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Medicine, Professor of Surgery, and Professor of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Director of the Tumor Immunology Program at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) and the Chair of the Melanoma Committee at SWOG. Trained at the University of Barcelona, with postdoctoral research and clinical fellowships at UCLA. Dr Ribas is a physician-scientist who conducts laboratory and clinical research in malignant melanoma, focusing on gene engineered adoptive cell transfer (ACT) therapies, anti-CTLA4 antibodies, anti-PD-1 antibodies, BRAF and MEK inhibitors and nanoparticle-siRNA. His NCI, State of California and private foundation-supported research laboratory develops models of disease to test new therapeutic options and studies mechanism of action of treatments in patients. He has been instrumental in the clinical development of several agents approved by the FDA, including pembrolizumab (Keytruda), vemurafenib (Zelboraf), cobimetinib (Cotellic), dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist). He is an elected member of the , the recipient of the AACR Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award and a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Outstanding Investigator Award.
Plenary 4 – Immuno-oncology in melanoma
Friday 20 October 2017, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM
Keynote Address: Rationale for immunotherapy in melanoma
